Dear Mr Cornwell, I am intrigued to read in your Wikipedia entry that you have taken your mother’s maiden name. This is quite an unusual surname which seems to be based in East Anglia and Kent. My maternal grandmother was a Cornwell born at West Langdon, in Kent, which is near Deal. If you have done any searching of your family tree, do you know where your mother came from? It would be fun if I was distantly related to someone whose books I have read and enjoy. Regards from Monteton David Norris